International Workshop on Atmospheric Modeling Research in East Asia (MICS-Asia III)

More than 40 scientists will participate in the 2017 MICS-Asia III workshop to report on and discuss progress with the analysis of model intercomparisons for the three topics of MICS-Asia Ⅲ.

The MICS-Asia III project has its focus on the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of current multi-scale air quality models, and aims to provide techniques to reduce uncertainty in Asia, to develop reliable anthropogenic emission inventories for Asia, and to research the interaction between air quality and climate change. At the workshop, the participants will report on and discuss the progress made with the analysis of model intercomparisons for the three topics of MICS-Asia III, which are: the comparison of modeling systems, the comparison of emission source inventories, and changes in the atmospheric environment and climate.

The first 11 meetings of the MICS-Asia project were hosted at IIASA. After that the meetings were moved to China, as more and more of the modeling community came from Asia. To acknowledge the importance of IIASA as a breeding place for scientific cooperation, even in difficult geo-political situations, the 20th anniversary meeting of MICS-Asia will be hosted again at IIASA.

Phases of Atmospheric Modeling Research in East Asia (MICS-Asia)

In order to help develop a better common understanding of the performance and uncertainties of chemical transport models (CTMs) in East Asia applications and to help build a modeling community, a model intercomparison study on long-range transport and deposition of sulfur, MICS-Asia Phase I, was carried out during the period from 1998 to 2002. A primary focus of this study was to better understand the capabilities of regional models in predicting source-receptor(S/R) relationships for sulfur deposition in East Asia.

In 2003 this initiative was expanded and focused on:

Long-term simulation and source-receptor analysis;

Expanding the chemical species such as sulfur, nitrogen, aerosols, ground-level ozone and

Individual episodes that are of special interest for gaining insights into important conditions in Asia (e.g., yellow-sand and high ozone episodes).

This broader collaborative study, MICS-Asia Phase II, examined four different periods, encompassing two different years and three different seasons (i.e., March, July, and December in 2001, and March in 2002). Nine different regional modeling groups simulated chemistry and transport of O3, precursors, sulfur dioxide, and secondary aerosols, using common emissions and boundary conditions derived from the global models of ozone and related tracers.